Consuelo Mack: On this week’s Consuelo Mack WealthTrack building financial security for women…two award winning financial advisors Maura Griffin and Debra Taylor give us the essential building blocks to construct a plan to last a lifetime next on Consuelo Mack WealthTrack.

Hello and welcome to this special WealthTrack Women edition, I’m Consuelo Mack. Since we launched WealthTrack in 2005 our goal has been to help our viewers build long-term financial security through disciplined diversified investing with advice from some of the top professionals in the business.

This week is no exception. We are interviewing two award winning financial advisors who are devoted to helping their clients achieve financial security, with particular emphasis on their women clients. They are part of our WealthTrack Women feature on our website wealthtrack.com.

For the most part we have been gender neutral on WealthTrack, figuring sound advice applies to everyone. But on the topic of financial planning there are some distinct differences and facts pertaining specifically to women that we cannot ignore.

Individual circumstances can vary but these generalizations apply to most:
–Women live several years longer than men do. That means they have more longevity risk. –Women are far more likely to be alone as they get older. –Only 18% of women over 85 are married whereas 58% of men are. –Women’s spend nearly 3x more than men do on long-term care. –Yet women’s retirement income is substantially less than men’s. Some $21,000 on average for women over 65 versus $37,000 for men.

Yet there is what is called a “perilous paradox” for women. Despite their financial needs many don’t adequately plan for their financial future. They are too busy taking care of everyone else. And that is where this week’s guests come in. They are here to help women build financial plans.

Maura Griffin is the founder and CEO of Blue Spark Capital Advisors, a New York City based, fee only firm providing investment advice, asset management and financial planning for women, men and their families. A certified financial planner, she was given the 2013 Women’s Choice Award for Financial Advisors.

Debra Taylor is the principal of Taylor Financial Group, a full service wealth management firm based in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. She started her career as a lawyer and is a licensed certified public accountant and financial planner as well as being a certified divorce financial analyst. She is also the recipient of the 2013 Women’s Choice Award for Financial Advisors.

I began the interview by asking them what is the first thing they want to know when a woman client walks into their office for the first time.

MAURA GRIFFIN: When a woman walks in my office, what I want to know is her story. I want to know why she’s here. I want to know what brought her to my office. I want to know about her family. I want to know about her kids and her parents. Is she sandwiched? Is she taking care of people? Often what brings people into my office is some kind of a life change, either a single woman who’s gotten an inheritance or a woman who’s divorced and is suddenly taking care of the finances by herself; and the same with widows. So I want to know all of that because all of that detail matters, the big picture. Then we can dig into the details.

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